The Good

Angie Dickinson has the right amount of brains and beauty that make her portrayal of Suzanne "Pepper' Anderson pitch perfect.

The Bad

Difficulty navigating through the special features as they are not labeled on the cover art.

In what would probably be seen as commonplace TV today, Angie Dickinson was clearly breaking new ground with the show Police Woman. In the role of undercover officer Suzanne "Pepper' Anderson, Dickinson plays the coolest of women who comes up against some of the creepiest of men. Whether this character is uncovering an underground "child selling" ring, or she's undercover at a hospital to catch a rapist, or even when "Pepper" is put in prison and she's found out by another prisoner, Dickinson always seems to know how to handle each situation.

Helped out by solid storytelling, clever writing and a real authentic feel for Los Angeles, Police Woman: The Complete First Season is more than just a nostalgic look at the past. It's a reminder of a city that, while it's been through many changes, is just as vibrant as it's ever been.

Features

Commentary Tracks

One can tell how much Angie Dickinson thought of this role because she does a bunch of commentary tracks for this DVD release. Also, she is joined on a lot of them by Earl Holliman who played Lt. Bill Crowley on the show. These two are having a lot of fun here as they discuss the show, the characters and the other actors they worked with, but my favorite parts are when they discussed the clothing and the 1970s. It is so interesting to me hearing these actors talk about the styles from the past simply because they seem to do everything to keep up with the trends. Another fun moment was hearing Holliman and Dickinson rediscover aspects of the show that they had long forgotten.

Video

1.33:1 - Full Screen. The DVDs compression has been done very well here. All of the colors are so sharp and when you consider what some of the characters are wearing, this says a lot. This was the 1970s afterall so big, loud clothing was quite the norm. That is all on display here and I am very impressed with how these DVDs have been kept up. In fact, the look of these discs goes above and beyond much of what I have seen for TV on DVD.

Audio

Dolby Digital. Remastered in High Definition. Close Captioned. This show sounds fine. It is a nice mix of dialogue and 1970s music. If nothing else, TV shows like Police Woman: The Complete First Season really capture the time in which they were made. With the delicate care that has been taken to make these 23 episodes look and sound as good as they do, I think people will be able to watch these discs years from now and really learn something about the past.

Package

A luminous, gold tinted Angie Dickinson graces the front cover of this DVD, with the skyline of Los Angeles behind her. The back features some shots from the show, a small description of what Police Woman is about, a "Bonus Features/Guest Stars" list and some technical specs. The five discs that make up this set are housed in three slim cases, with the cover of each featuring a different shot of Dickinson. The back of these covers lists out the episodes and gives descriptions of each. Sadly, they have not indexed out where the commentary tracks are, but if you plan to watch all the discs you will find them.

Final Word

This five disc set features guest stars such as Larry Hagman (Episode 4 - Seven Eleven) and Pat Morita (Episode 5 - Anatomy of Two Rapes), but the true star is really Angie Dickinson. She has a feminine toughness that just seems so natural. In every scene that she's in, I always got the impression that she was quite comfortable in the role she was playing. She never seemed to be worried that another actor would steal her thunder, and no matter what the episode was she always seemed to have a firm command (both as an actress and as the character) of her situation.

Yeah, I love 1970s TV and Police Woman: The Complete First Season does nothing to deter from this.

Police Woman was released .